Watch your mouth

San Luis Obispo Surfrider secretary Nipomo

Thank you, New Times, for writing such a comprehensive piece about your experience walking the San Luis Creek (“Going gonzo in trout country,” June 6). It provided a much needed look at a vital creek and its watershed on the Central Coast.

We at Surfrider have been monitoring the water quality of the San Luis Creek at the creek mouth in Avila for several years now, and we are still greatly concerned. The county’s Environmental Health Services does not include the creek mouth area in its regular water testing. Instead, they have placed signs warning the public not to enter the creek due to its potential hazard to human health; the signs say “Avoid contacting and ingesting the water.”

Yet, the public doesn’t pay attention to the signs, and beachgoers regularly enter the water on any given day. Surfrider has been regularly testing the creek for the past several months, and indeed, our results show that the creek’s waters have high enterococcus counts (bacteria from the intestine). We hope to see some next steps in evaluating the creek’s water quality and its contributing watershed instead of just seeing signs warning the public not to enter.

Meanwhile, it’s going to be another busy summer season of surfers, boogie boarders, and waders in the creek mouth.